Newlyweds
by Rubedo the Crystal Blood
Summary: Oneshot featuring Ichigo and Tatsuki taking on yet another one of Mizuiro's daunting questions. So who's the one playing a joke here?


Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Bleach, or any characters affiliated with the creator Tite Kubo. I will willingly withdraw all offending content upon request of the owners.

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"So, you're married to the handsome man of your dreams..." 

"...uh-huh..."

"...and you're living happy and successful life. You're going to have children..."

"...go on..."

"...so? If you were to have two kids, one after the other, would they be boys or girls?"

At this, Arisawa Tatsuki could take no more. "God, I thought you were leading up to some incredible life crisis." Always one to avoid romantic complications, today she was playing the role of a drama queen, something that was actually girlish. Mizuiro stared for a moment, then blinked as if he had a stroke of inspiration.

"So... you won't answer?" he asked simply. The tomboy eagerly expressed her grunt of disapproval, before rejoining Orihime and the other girls. Mizuiro then pretended to look around, as if seeking another victim. The general populace of the class had heard his question, so most shook their heads as his gaze passed over them, one by one. But there was one sleeping lummox among his classmates who had most likely never heard a single word.

"Ichigo!" The strawberry-head gave a start, rubbed his eyes, and looked around sleepily, if not angrily, for the one responsible for disturbing his much needed afternoon nap. "How about you? Most of the other people in here have answered my question." A lie. "So? What would you choose?"

"Urk...!" The boy stared. Apparently, everyone here was in on it. As the various students began to ponder his reaction, some were betting on a violent outburst, while most simply figured he would drift back to sleep.

"Arisawa seemed eager to answer it. If she could, shouldn't you be able to?"

Ichigo looked to the raven-haired punk amongst the gabbling girls. Said punk gave an awkward nod of assent, followed by a snicker. Tatsuki was curious on how he would respond.

"Well..." Having been his only excuse _not_ to answer the question, now that Tatsuki had said "yes" (for whatever reason he had bothered asking in the first place), he had no other choice but to mutter, "I was sleeping... Ask it again." There were a few murmurs, and among most of them Ichigo found an odd comfort. Normalcy was good medicine at times, and this was one of them.

"Well, you just married the most beautiful woman in the world..."

"..."

"...and you're living a very successful life, while your wife is going to have children..."

A giggle, sounding quite unlike Tatsuki.

"...and the children are going to be twins. Boys or girls."

"Well that's obvious," Ichigo blurted suddenly. The whole room was taken by surprise. "I'd want a daughter first, so she could remind me of my wife. And the second child would be a son, because the woman I marry would want a child to remember me by too." He quashed the urge to glance nervously at Tatsuki.

"Fine, since Ichigo answered it, I'll answer it too!"

Silence... Was this coordinated effort? Ichigo seemed to be as incredulous as the rest. Yet Tatsuki let out a feminine wink and laugh towards strawberry-head before answering, "A girl to remind my husband of me first, because I'd love him and I'd want to assured he loves me too. Then a boy for me, so that I could always remember my husband."

There was laughter, and students began filing out of the room with dignified hands covering dignified mouths, simply to mask dignified chortles and dignified smirks. When only a few were left, Ichigo lamely decided it was probably a good time to leave the room. Frowning, he shut the door behind him.

"Good acting there, strawberry-head!" It was clearly costing Tatsuki a lot of effort to avoid doubling over in laughter. He seemed surprised. "What, not as funny as we planned?"

"Well... not really..." He still had no idea what she meant.

They walked along the halls in solitude. "Well, all in good fun right? It was only a joke after all, and what's really important is that it made other people laugh. Now all we have to deal with are the rumors, which will probably be even more entertaining."

"Y-yeah... a joke..."

"Whatsamatter? Did I go too far...?" They stopped, and Ichigo finally looked into her eyes with a serious expression. After a moment or so, she began to feel uncomfortable, wondering whether he would remove the daggers from her neck or not.

Then he began walking again, sighing disappointedly. "When I have a daughter... I think I'd name her Tatsuki..." Then he turned around and laughed sarcastically. "What would you name _our son_?" Tatsuki raised a brow and chuckled,

"Well... certainly not Ichigo...!" Perhaps a few of their classmates, the ones returning, had seen them. Neither cared. "You're really mean sometimes, you know that?" she mumbled as soon as he drew his lips away.

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A/N: Well, what did you think? This came to me during a pun contest in an IM chat with my lover last night. I really don't know how it'll go with you readers, so review it please :D 


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